Gangs of London Review

Funny story this: we were feeling a bit peckish the other night so we nipped out of our swanky London pad and crossed the street to the supermarket when an unmarked van reared out of nowhere. Half a dozen gun-toting cockney geezers leapt out and started taking pot shots in our general direction, so obviously we did the only thing we could and dragged the nearest passer-by out of his car before careering off down the road at full pelt. Actually, that's all a great big lie - we bought some fish fingers and went straight home. Still, if we were in Gangs of London, things might have been a bit different.

See, Gangs of London comes fresh from Sony's London studio - the birthplace of The Getaway and The Getaway: Black Monday on PS2. Taking place in the same universe, Gangs of London sports the same fully-realised sprawling city map as well as the familiar mix of in-car and on-foot action. From the outset things looks peachy, with the game featuring the same high quality presentation and attention to detail found in its PS2 brethren.

Driving around London: More fun than in real-life, despite the PSP nubbin.

Each of the five selectable gangs has its own largely unique story arc tying together the game's 60-plus missions. Each gang's tale unfolds through gritty static comic-style panels which, while lacking the cinematic punch of The Getaway titles, are pleasing enough and complimented by full voice acting. Although the option to select between Cockney, Triad, Yardie, Russian and Pakistani gangs at the start of the game is nice, in practice there's not a startling difference between each, with many missions cropping up again and again, albeit with minor cosmetic differences.

Despite its abundance of atmosphere and tongue-in-cheek mockney charm, however, it's disappointing to note that Sony seemingly hasn't learned from criticisms leveraged at The Getaway series in the past. Once the first cut-scene has reached its conclusion, it's instantly apparent that many of the flaws found in Gangs of London's predecessors have made an unwelcome return - a fact made even more puzzling as the PSP version has been developed by a brand new team.

Only masochists travel on-foot. No, we really, really mean that.

Inexplicably, Sony still isn't capitalising on The Getaway games' finest achievement - the vast, sprawling recreation of London's city streets. Once again, outside of the Free Ride mode, exploration of the city is nigh on impossible, with the bite-sized missions unfolding across miniscule sections of the map. While this does help focus the narrative aspects of Gangs of London and make the whole thing a little more portable-friendly, the action - particularly when compared to Gangs of London's closest PSP rival, GTA: Liberty City Stories - feels unnecessarily restrictive. It's a bit like dangling a carrot three miles in front of a donkey then tying its feet together.

While that could be overlooked, the problem is further compounded by the limited variety of mission objectives, with d¿j¿ vu striking all too quickly. Vehicular missions essentially fall into one of three categories: get from A to B on the map, follow an AI opponent or bugger off as fast as you can. On-foot missions are even more limited, with gamers continually forced along linear corridor-style maps with not much to do beyond killing everyone in sight. Again though, we can see Sony's logic in all this - keep the action brief, taught and focused and you've got the ideal portable iteration of The Getaway.